THE AUTEURS: NOW I'M A COWBOY (1994)
1) Lenny Valentino; 2)
Brainchild; 3) I'm A Rich Man's Toy; 4) New French Girlfriend; 5) The Upper
Classes; 6) Chinese Bakery; 7) A Sister Like You; 8) Underground Movies; 9)
Life Classes/Life Model; 10) Modern History; 11) Daughter Of A Child.
With a title like that, some might think The Auteurs
would be quitting the cool Euro flavors of New
Wave and embracing country-western and other rootsy directions. Others,
already accustomed to the idea that Luke Haines' album titles have
intentionally little to do with album content, might not think that — and the
latter would be more correct than the former, since the only song on here that
has a vaguely country-western sheen to it is the slow-waltzing ʽBrainchildʼ
(whose lyrics actually include the word «cowboy», but something makes me
suspect that these lyrics would hardly be welcome in Nashville anyway).
Altogether, Now I'm A Cowboy is a bit heavier and going for a more
«rock-oriented» sound than New Wave
— fewer acoustic pieces and more loud instrumental passages (such as the codas
to ʽUpper Classesʼ and ʽModern Historyʼ). Cutting down on subtlety also leads
to cutting down on variety and on charisma: the result is an album that is ever
so slightly more crude and generic than its predecessor. But, after all, Luke
Haines did want to be in a rock band, and build himself up a steady fanbase —
and you can't just do that with a «brainy» sound, downplaying the «brawny»
component. «Brainy» + «brawny» = «musical brownie», which would be a good
definition for this record: tough, rich in calories, but sometimes way too
heavy on the stomach.
Haines' lyrics have already reached that stage
where objective interpretations do not exist: all that remains is just a
general sarcastic feel of rejection, sometimes targeted at the well-to-do (ʽI'm
A Rich Man's Toyʼ, ʽThe Upper Classesʼ), sometimes at the pseudo-intellectual
elites (ʽNew French Girlfriendʼ), sometimes at celebrities (ʽLenny Valentinoʼ),
and sometimes just rejection per se (ʽA Sister Like Youʼ — very sad-sounding,
but nobody knows why). Fortunately, the lyrics are still nowhere near the focal
point of the album, perfectly enjoyable and sympathetic even if one does not
know one word of English (and even if one does, I doubt it would help much).
I have no personal preferences here — maybe
ʽNew French Girlfriendʼ sticks out a little, with active help from James
Banbury: his cello «swoops» in the intro set such a vividly sneering atmosphere
that the song gets an initial kick-start like no other. ʽChinese Bakeryʼ is a
good proposition for lovers of well-rounded Britpop vocal hooks. ʽA Sister Like
Youʼ is a good proposition for Kinks fans (the fact that the song deals with
the mystical trials of «two sisters» can hardly be a total coincidence;
melodically, there is little resemblance, but atmosphere-wise, the song dispenses
the same soft, lyrical melancholy as Ray Davies' ʽTwo Sistersʼ). ʽBrainchildʼ
is interesting because it really takes a country vibe and translates it into
the language of jangle-pop: where you'd normally expect slide guitars and
fiddles, you get regular electric twang and cello, not to mention those hushed
post-punk vocals.
The larger, «epic» compositions are
questionable. Personally, I like ʽThe Upper Classesʼ, with its
lightly-depressing mantraic coda (and its little guessable nod to The Beatles'
ʽI Want Youʼ, or am I seeing things?), but don't care a lot about ʽModern
Historyʼ, which, despite lacking a clearly fleshed out melodic line, repeats
the same coda trick once again (with an even better guessable nod to the same
source, even including some windy white noise for fatness' sake). It seems
like, generally, if Haines does not manage to say something in three minutes,
he won't be able to say anything in five or six — and the arrangements on
Auteurs' albums still remain too sparse and simple (but tasteful) to hold your
attention for all that time by themselves. Basically, they just ain't big
enough for big songs.
Still, the people, always great suckers for
loudness and bigness, went for it and pushed Now I'm A Cowboy higher up the charts than its predecessor — and
ʽLenny Valentinoʼ made enough of a splash to have an entire dream-pop band from
Poland named after it four years later (even if the song itself is anything but dream-pop; only Haines' hushed
vocals could be said to have a dreamy atmosphere to them — the rest is loud,
dark, punchy power-pop. By the way, most
of the vocals on the album are «hushed», which sometimes gets annoying — we do
know that Haines can be a proper singer, but it is almost as if he is too embarrassed to sing properly).
This probably makes the album sort of an «objective
peak» for the band, but the way I see it, the public just didn't catch up to
their quality soon enough — as it often happens, the debut album had to sink in
and simmer for a while, with the prize for its awesomeness going to the
inferior sophomore effort. But that's alright: like I said, the quality
fluctuations are quite subtle anyway. Most of the songs here are still smart,
catchy, stylish, and haven't at all lost their resonance in the modern world,
as long as it still flaunts its «Lennies» and «Valentinos». Thumbs up.
Check "Now I'm A Cowboy" (MP3) on Amazon
This does indeed sound like a subtler, wittier (much subtler and much wittier) idea of Oasis - though I know Haines would hate to see his name used in the same sentence... Still fantastic album: articulate, charismatic pop music. What else do you need. Lyrics are lush and smart - fuck the meaning (it's not real poetry anyway). According to Luke's hilarious and acerbic memoir, Bad Vibes (don't read it if you like Blur, Suede, Oasis, Radiohead or just about any other band; he spares only Jarvis Cocker, and that's probably because Cocker considers Haines the greatest songwriter of the 90s or something), even the man himself doesn't perceive Now I'm A Cowboy as his masterpiece! Maybe his only album he doesn't see that way... Oh and it was also interesting to know that "I'm A Rich Man's Toy" was written for Kylie Minogue! Never sent it to her in the end. Haha.
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